I found out I had been paying for a cloud storage service for eleven months that I used exactly once. Eleven months. The app was installed, I opened it that one time, and the monthly charge just kept going.

That discovery cost me about ninety dollars. Here is how to find yours before they find you.

Find every subscription

The charges hide in three places:

• Your bank and credit card statements, search for recurring charges.
• Your phone’s subscription settings. On iPhone, Settings, your name, Subscriptions.
• On Android, the Play Store, menu, Payments and subscriptions.

How to audit fast

1. Pull up six months of statements.
2. Search for monthly or yearly charges you do not recognize.
3. Go through your phone’s subscription list.
4. Cancel anything you have not used in 30 days.

How to cancel the stubborn ones

Some services make you cancel on their website, not through the app store. Others hide the cancel button behind menus. If you cannot find it, email support and say cancel my subscription. That phrase is usually enough to get a link.

Prevent it from happening again

Set a reminder every six months to audit. Better yet, use a virtual card number with a low limit for subscriptions if your bank offers it, or pay for annual plans on a card you actually check. I now keep a list of every active subscription with its price, so nothing sneaks by.